opm cyber breach

Hackers linked to China appear to have gained access to the sensitive background information submitted by intelligence and military personnel for security clearances, several U.S. officials said Friday, describing a second cyberbreach of federal records that could dramatically compound the potential damage.

The Office of Personnel Management offers new clues about the current and former federal employees affected by one data breach, while staying mum on the scope of another breach, thought to be much larger.

Agencies now have 30 days to sprint to new cybersecurity standards after multiple data breaches at the Office of Personnel Management. But some chief information security officers say they are more concerned about what impact a cyber attack will have on their organization’s reputation than the data itself that’s at risk. That’s according to a new report from the RAND Corporation, ”The Defender’s Dilemma: Charting a Course Toward Cybersecurity.” Martin Libicki, a senior management scientist and professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, is a co-author of the report. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose what he heard from 18 CISOs about their cybersecurity operations.

The next step in the debate over the OPM cyber breaches may happen in court. The largest federal employee union is suing the Office of Personnel Management. Federal News Radio Reporters Emily Kopp has on the details of the suit.

A recent petition posted to the White House’s We the People website calls on the government to offer lifetime identity protection for current and former federal employees impacted by the cybersecurity breaches at the Office of Personnel Management. 100,000 signatures are needed by July 19, 2015, in order for the White House to respond to the request.